Why Israel and why now? Well, the lease on my apartment in the Bronx was up at the end of August. I put up fliers all over the area where I work and set up ads online, on various social networks, and roommate apps in search of a new place. I don’t know if you all remember what hell it is to find a place in NYC, but I was on the struggle bus again. Luckily, an Israeli professor I’d befriended from the area who had been teaching me Hebrew and helping me expand my study of Judaica (check out this blog post if you wanna know more) offered to let me stay with him.

SN: I sadly found out a week ago all of this created quiteee the scandal…I’ll tell you about it one day, but alas, it doesn’t matter now!

I recently (like 7 days ago) ended my time as a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient, after 2 years and 2 months. My patient’s condition had advanced beyond my comfort/experience level, and I gave my notice about 3 months ago. Around this time, my friend invited me to come to Israel with him since he knew I love to travel, am interested in world religions, and history. I knew my last day of work would be the end of November (I planned to go back to Texas for 3-4 weeks, like I have the past two years), so it worked out perfectly.

My dad was stationed in the Sinai desert in 1986 and during his time there he went to Egypt and Israel and loved both places. I have been to Italy x4, Greece, Spain, Mexico, Turkey (day trip), and Morrocco (day trip), so I thought what better time than now to explore a new part of the world. I grew up hearing about Israel from my dad but never met any Israelis until I came to the Bronx. Obviously, Israel is in the news a lot for various reasons, but I have always wanted to visit for historical and religious reasons, so now I am.

Thankfully, I will have a friend there and have accommodations (like I did in Italy), so it’s really the opportunity of a lifetime.

I will be spending a week in Tel Aviv and three weeks at a kibbutz near Be’er Sheva. I will also be in Israel for Hannukah, Christmas, my birthday, and New Year’s Eve.

As with 40 Days in Italia, I plan to blog this trip in its entirety. With the trip to Italy, I was able to create an exact itinerary in advance and dedicate time to writing about my day, which won’t be the case this time. Other than my accommodations, I have no plans since I don’t know what to expect and have never been there. But I do have a much larger social media presence than I did in 2014, so be sure to follow me @THATGINGERANNA(seriously: snapchat, twitter, periscope, IG, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) and subscribe to my Youtube channel!

SN: My goal is to get 100 subscribers on YouTube so that I can reclaim my custom URL…help me out! 🙂

I will be posting regular updates and cool pictures across platforms, so let’s have some fun, y’all!

#ThatGingerISR

SN: If you live on the east coast and are looking for an awesome employee or a roommate, email me at thatgingeranna@gmail.com and find me on LinkedIn!